Oh, Hello September

Woah - Hello September! When did you arrive?

September will always feel like "back to school" time. Time to bring out the pants and socks, the new notebooks, the pens and the backpacks. Time to leave the flexible summer days behind and enter into the schedule filled with school, extra-curricular activities, and youth group. It's time for packed lunches, late night paper writing, Saturday sleep-ins and life being organized by the agenda book.

For the second year, September does not have me going back to school (although late-fall may see an online course). September now means cooler days, a more relaxed schedule and the next set of projects and deadlines approaching alongside a very full schedule. September still has the joy of bringing out the fall wardrobe (I'm one of those people who love fall and winter clothes!) and doing some preparations for children and youth ministry in the church... which is sort of like school preparations!

My work has the summer months as the most full and most busy months of the year. The summer months are filled with some of the most joyful and holy days as people gather together to form community, to pray, to play and to learn. Which means that when the fall days come I have both a more relaxed and more flexible schedule alongside a more full schedule as commitments beyond Sorrento Centre come back to life and the meeting commitments I have made fill up many days and weeks of the year.

At the Cathedral everything starts up again in September: Sunday School, Youth Group, Young Adults, Staff Meetings, Bible Study, Parish Dinners, and the list goes on and on and on! And I am so excited and so ready to continue the planning and get back in touch with everyone. Alongside this my National Church commitments begin again: meetings, readings, writing, gatherings, traveling. There is much new for this year, namely - heading off to the World Council of Churches in South Korea as one of the handful of delegates representing the Anglican Church of Canada. Excited. Terrified. Honoured.

For me, the fall days also are the days when I get back into my cooking and preparing of meals. And I love cooking and baking - so when the time comes for me to get back into the kitchen I find myself filled with peace.

Fall means planning, traveling, preparing, cooking, resting.
Fall means new challenges and opportunities.
So, as much as I am surprised that September has already arrived I am also so very ready for it!

Ten on Tuesday: Merry Christmas!

Ten on Tuesday being completed on Wednesday!

The view outside my patio windows. 

1) Firstly, Merry Christmas!!

2) We had a white Christmas all around. My home in Sorrento has tons and tons of snow and the family home in Savona also has lots of lovely snow. It really is beautiful.

3) On Saturday I got to shovel some snow from in front of the Cathedral. I know this should sound tedious and like a chore but it actually was a lovely break from the "normal". It was nice to do repetitive activity - the night was quiet and peaceful. The slowly falling snow had stopped. And the geese sang their lovely song high above the thick fog. Following this peace filled activity was the Holy Table Holy Word service at the Cathedral filled with scripture, song, silence and the sharing of the Holy Meal.

4) The kids spent two weekends with me over the month of December - it was so wonderful to have them up in Sorrento, to have fun with them and to spend hours of play in lots and lots of snow! I'll write more about this in the coming week or so as well as share the pizza recipe that we tackled with great success!

5) Christmas Eve was a marvelous night at the Cathedral with a very simple and yet oh so amazing sharing of the Christmas story by our children. I loved it. And I loved even more how many children who are not from the Cathedral community joined us in telling the story... how many children felt comfortable enough to join us in that story sharing. This is Christmas.

6) It will never be "normal" to attend Christmas Eve services on my own without my family, but I am so grateful for the family I have in the Cathedral community. The family with whom I don't feel so alone.

7) My family gathered together in Kamloops for Christmas Eve celebrations that were fun, high energy and filled with excited children. It was a lot, a lot of good but also just simply "a lot" at the same time.

8) Christmas Day started with sleeping in until 8am - this was a first and oh so very much appreciated. And of course the day was filled with piles of wrapping paper, much joy and excitement and a delicious dinner.

9) This is the first Christmas in a few years that has all of us children together. It's great and of course has also resulted in family photo taking... photos soon!

10) I'm kind of glad that the "big-major-crazy" part of Christmas is over so that the slower pace of the celebration of the birth of the little babe can be enjoyed.

Ten on Tuesday: Changes

Nothing like almost four months down the road to pick up where I left off... only now summer has past,  new adventures have started, a new routine is trying to be discovered, fall has settled in and winter is around the corner. Where oh where do I start off? How about in the past week?!

Ten on Tuesday

Fall at Sorrento Centre

1) I've been settling into not only the job as Program Director at Sorrento Centre over the past month but have also been settling into my apartment over the past few weeks. It's coming together but will not happen overnight. A few items still need to come in from Savona... nevertheless it is so nice to have my own space to call home. My own space to make mine. My own space to be who I need to be outside of the rest of my life. Rest, Renewal, Sleep, Peace, Prayer.

2) Cooking... oh how I truly have missed cooking. This week I made some delicious beef patties with mushroom and feta in them. Enjoyed on top of a bed of green spinach and I was set! Tonight "Spinach Tomato Orzo Soup" is in my crock pot... so looking forward to enjoying that tonight!

3) Speaking of all things cooking... it's vital to get some stuff into the freezer so I can pull it out and take it with me for lunch and/or dinner during the many trips to Kamloops I'm making.

4) Last week I spent five days in the Calgary area gathering with representatives from each diocese of people who have a passion for working with youth. It was wonderful to gather with friends and colleagues. It was much needed time of sharing, conversation, worship, laughter and rest.

Play time with Theo!!

5) I'm not going to lie... one of the best parts of my resent time in Calgary was spending time with my friend Su from the Island and her 10 month old baby, Theo. I'll be bold enough to say that Theo and I became pretty good friends and had way too much fun playing with toys, crawling on the ground, and laughing. There is something about spending time with infants that reminds me of what is really important in life and how some things are really just not worth our time.

6) Youth Group - it's all happening again!! Some new ideas, some new adventures, some new faces and a whole lot of similar fun!!

7) A new church experience. I've been helping out with Sunday School here and there at the Cathedral during the 10am service. Sunday School is where I started out many years ago in the small town of Savona. It's where I learned about God, it's where I discovered my passion, it's where a group of adults believed in me, mentored me, and encouraged me - even though I didn't know I needed it. 8 years of Sunday School ministry and I'm once again dipping my toes into it and loving it. Right, back to the point. Because of this it means that I miss the scripture reading and reflection at the 10am service... so I've started to attend the 8am service (when I'm organized enough). This service is Book of Common Prayer, an unfamiliar book with unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable language.

8) I think I'm enjoying this 8am service thing. Yes, that is what I just wrote. There is something nice about the simplicity of it (no music, no interaction with neighbor, etc...), the unfamiliarity and the fact that I have no responsibilities and no one has any expectations for me (well, except maybe God). I sit in that small chapel with the small gathered group and I stop. I pause. I breathe. And sometimes, I just want to cry. It's the break I obviously need right now.

9) I have some pretty remarkable, caring and influential friends out there... just saying!

10) I slowly but surly beginning to feel settled for which I am very grateful.

Post Easter Reflections

I think my tiredness is setting in. I was unable to tell just a short bit ago but now I’m feeling tired and still sitting in the Vancouver airport awaiting my soon to depart flight. I feel better though seeing at least four small children around me also waiting for flights all of who are obviously exhausted. Last complaint then I’ll move onto more exciting things: I’ve been sitting way too much since Tuesday at 6am. And my beloved shoulder bags, well they will have limited airport travel time with me now… backpack all the way. I must be starting to get old or at least my bones have prematurely aged on me. And in an attempt to not spread out on the floor I have managed to sit “criss cross apple sauce“ on this chair that has become my temporary home!

Maundy Thursday @ Cathedral

Easter. Yay – Easter has come!!! Yahoo, the Lord is Risen!! Holy Week was amazing and very full as it can only be. And I made it to my first ever Maundy Thursday service, loved it of course! Now I have too many ideas for future Holy Weeks/services going through my mind (not uncommon at all!). We had a course over Monday – Wednesday of the week “The 3 Mary’s”, I enjoyed each session and learned lots. Things went well and somehow I managed to make it though alongside school and many other preparations.

Fifteen young people gathered together on Saturday night to attend the 9pm Easter Vigil service and then spent the night at the Cathedral. It was a night with no sleep, I didn’t even get my pillow out of the office! We had a massive Easter egg hunt around 1am with glow-in-the-dark eggs alongside all things chocolate themed. Folks played games and watched a movie. Around 3am I gave up on the topic of sleep, made tea and sat in the chapel for a bit. We left the Cathedral around 4:30am to attend the Sunrise service on the beach. It was freezing out but the moon was beautiful and full and the service lovely. It is quickly becoming one of my favorite services.

Glow-in-the-dark Easter Eggs!

By the time we got to Denny’s for breakfast the youth were close to collapsing into sleep in their breakfast! I attended the 10am Easter service at the Cathedral and then headed out to Savona. Joined the community there fore their 4pm service and then spent the evening with the family – it was so wonderful to be together.

All in all everything went well and we all eventually got home and to sleep. I heard the Easter Resurrection story four times in twelve hours and heard something different/new each time. One can’t get tired of the Resurrection story! Joy, joy, joy, joy!! And much, much celebration! I love Easter.

New Life

Signs and smells of New Life and the Resurrection are being experienced and beginning to surround us all.

Happy Easter!

Time for Creativity

Sometimes you just need to have your soul fully, delicately, and wonderfully filled. And sometimes you don't even know that it's what the deepest depths of your soul needs, but when the opportunity comes those deep depths of yourself just soak it all up.

This past Wednesday the staff at the Cathedral gathered to decorate Easter Eggs. This time to explore and be reminded of the creative side within me was just what I needed, it was just what we all needed.



Of course, the problem now is figuring out how to move from being creative to paper writing... or maybe accepting the creativity that can and should exist within the words on a page, yes even in academic papers!

But as this week ends and we soon begin the journey through Holy Week the opportunity to explore my creative side once again and engage in some repetitive and delicate work with good company filled with creativity and laughter is feeding me.

A Full Soul

The best feeling ever is having a full soul. I can't even describe the feeling in detail. I don't know if anyone can. How do you describe having a full soul? It's a good feeling. It's a full feeling. More peaceful. More calm. More focused. Happier. Ready for what's to come next. 

My soul is full. My soul is full because of community, worship, silence, friendship, laughter, scripture, song, and being fed with Holy food. I spent today with members of the Cathedral community for our Discernment Day. It was a good day, it was a full day, it was a fun day. Tonight I went to the Cathedral's "Holy Table, Holy Word" service. A service of meditation, chant, prayer, holy words and silence. As part of the service we had twenty solid minutes of blissful silence. It's been months since I've been fed in this way. It's been months since I've sat in silence. And hearing some of the words I share so often with the young people I work with (breath in love, breath out fear) was exactly what I needed. There's something different about hearing the words, about receiving them. Giving them to and sharing them with others is great and an honor but I was reminded tonight that I also need to receive them. 

And so this week I will breath in the love of God and breath out fear. I will breath in the love of God and breath out anxiety. I will breath in the love of God and breath out stress. I will breath in the love of God and breath out fear. This week I will strive to be present with God.

A full soul, it's a good thing. It will keep me going through the next week of classes. It will keep me nourished through my moments doubt, frustration, stress, exhaustion and panic. My soul is very full and it feels good.